Fading Courage
by faustXIII
Summary: Its summer vaction and the digidestined are enjoying it. But their vacation is interupted suddenly, shortly after it begins. Diaster strikes and a new evil threat is born. Please R&R!
1. Chapter 1 Targeted

Hi, I would just like to say that i do NOT own digimon and if I did i wouldnt be writing fanfiction. Anyways, this is my first fanfic so dont be to harsh but I'd like to know whereI can improve. Enjoy! And dont forget the popcorn!

Chapter 1:

Targeted

"Yeah! Come on Davis, you're doing great!" Tai shouted to the brunette boy as he ran toward the opposite teams goalie. Davis glanced toward the stands where the other digidestined were sitting. The two teams were tied with only one minute left.

"Don't look at me! Watch what you're doing! Don't forget you are still playing soccer against the Red Dragons!" Tai yelled at Davis as one of the Red dragons run toward him quickly.

It's the captain of the Red dragons and is a few years older then Davis. His short blonde hair is wet from sweating. His name is Bret and he grins at Davis as the brunette is only a few feet from the goal with the soccer ball. There is only about twenty seconds left on the clock. Davis looks at the goal as he shoots. The digidestined hold their breath as they watch the ball. Davis isn't paying attention to Bret and the blonde runs to him. Bret slams into Davis, wrapping his arm around Davis's waist. Davis gasps as he feels himself being forced forward at one of the goals metal poles. Before he can do anything about it, he smashes into the pole with a sickening crack. That's the last thing Davis remembers before everything goes blurry and he blacks out. Bret falls to the ground along with him because his arm is still wrapped around Davis's waist. A whistle echos across the field as the ball goes into the goal when the clock hits zero.

"Goal!" The referees voice echos.

The crowd cheers because Davis's team beat the Red Dragons. Bret slowly gets off Davis and stands up. He looks down at the unconscious boy laying on the ground. "That's for ruining my game and making me look stupid," Bret growls in a low voice to Davis. He then walks away toward his coach and the rest of his team. The other digidestined cheer loudly with their digimon sitting in their laps, who are trying not to draw very much attention to themselves. Tk was the first to notice that there was something wrong. He stops cheering and he stares out onto the field where Davis lays where he fell. Tk's digimon, Patamon, notices Tk's strange behavior and looks up at him.

"Tk?"

Tk doesn't look at him but stands up suddenly, knocking Patamon out of his lap and onto the bleachers. Tai looks at him, concerned.

"Tk, what is it?" Tk doesn't look at him.

"Something's wrong. Something's just not right, why isn't he getting up . . . "

The others follow his gaze to where Davis is still laying. By then, others are also starting to notice he's not getting up and are making their way across the field. The group of digidestined grab their digimon partners and jump off the side of the bleachers, avoiding the celebrating fans because of the great win by Davis's team. (Note: I don't know the name of his team. Sorry) They run across the field toward their friend. When they reach him, a small medical team is lifting his limp body onto a stretcher. Kari gasps. A large bleeding gash is across the right side of his face, running from his forehead down to the bottom of his jaw. The wound bleeds badly and the blood is dark. He is then being loaded into the ambulance. Tai looks down at the ground as he sees Davis's goggles laying next to the pole. He picks them up, noticing that their lenses are shattered. Ken and Yolei walk to the pole. The metal pole is bent badly by the force of the impact.

"Wow, he must have hit that hard to bent it like that," Yolei says as she puts her hand to the warped metal. Ken nods slowly. Tai picks up demiveemon and he walks to one of the guys in the medical team. Demiveemon pretends to be a toy as he holds his partner's, broken goggles tight.

"Hey, can I go with him," Tai asks once Davis is loaded into the ambulance. The guy look's Tai over but doesn't see any reason why he can't.

"Um, sure kid. Get in the back and stay out of the way."

"Thanks," Tai nods and then he turns quickly to the others. "Call the others. Let them know what happened. Matt's at one of his concerts with Sora and Joe's studying for exams at his house. As for Izzy and Cody, I don't know where they are."

The others nod.

"If you are going kid, get in," the medical guy says, agitated. Tai jumps in the back of the ambulance and sits down next to Davis with demiveemon in his lap. He looks at Kari as she waves and shouts, "we'll meet you there!" Tai nods to his sister as the doors to the ambulance are closed and the vehicle lurches forward. Yolei takes out her d-terminal and she sends Mimi and Sora an email that says:

Hey guys,

Davis was hurt at his soccer game. Tai went with him to the hospital and the rest of us are going to meet him there.

Yolei

Tk sent an email to his brother while Kari sent one to Cody, Izzy and Joe. They then start to head toward the hospital. Patamon clings to Tk's hat, still quite angry that he was dropped like a sack of potatoes. Gatomon is curled up in Kari's backpack sleeping. Yolei carries poromon and Ken holds wormmon.

Tai is silent as he watches a nurse help Davis.

"Here, hold this against the wound to stop it from bleeding," the nurse tells him. Tai gets up, sitting demiveemon down. She hands him a thick piece of cloth and Tai presses it against the wound. Almost instantly the white cloth is covered with the dark blood. A few minutes pass in silence. Tai jumps when Davis gasps as he jolts awake. Tai looks at him, still shaking slightly from being scared. Davis winces as Tai takes the blood-soaked towel from the wound down the right side of the face.

"Hey, welcome back," Tai says as he smiles and looks down at Davis. Davis looks up at him, a dazed look in his eyes.

"Keep him awake and keep putting slight pressure on the wound," the nurse says as she hands Tai another towel. Tai nods and she walks into the front of the ambulance and sits in the passenger seat. She closes the door behind her, leaving Tai and Davis alone. Tai presses the towel against the wound and Davis winces in pain. Tai looks down at him and sees him wince.

"Sorry."

Demiveemon jumps up next to Davis.

"Davish, are you ok?"

Davis looks at his partner slowly, and looking dazed.

"I...what happened?"

"You -" Tai is cut off when the ambulance swerves hard to the left. He is thrown backward and onto the floor along with demiveemon and several metal trays with medical instruments lain on them. The stuff hits the floor with a deafening clang. Davis falls onto the floor as the vehicle tips over onto its side, sliding fast across the road.

At the same time, the younger digidestined had arrived at the hospital and were surprised to find that Davis and Tai weren't there.

"Are you sure?"Tk asks again at the front desk. The desk attendant looks at Tk and sighs, getting annoyed because he was asked three times already.

"Yes, I'm sure. A Davis Motamiya isn't here. Now go and wait in the waiting room."

Tk and the other four digidestined walk into the waiting area and sit down.

"I wonder why they aren't here yet. It's been almost fifteen minutes since we all left the soccer field. And they would have gotten here before us," Kari says as Gatomon crawls out of her backpack and yawns, stretching. 'Something must have happened. I hope they're ok,' Kari thinks to herself as she gets a sinking feeling in her stomach.

Tai slowly tries to get up but something huge and heavy smashes into the ambulance that is still on its side. The roof is bashed in badly and the vehicle lurches sideways, knocking a large piece of twisted metal over. It was part of the medical table Davis was laying on. The half piece of the table falls and lands across Tai's midriff. He screams as the heavy metal slams down onto him. It takes a few minutes for him to catch his breath because the air was crushed from his lungs. Davis can't be seen from where Tai is trapped underneath the heavy metal table.

"Davis? Davis! Are you ok? Come on, say something!"

Davis doesn't answer. Demiveemon crawls out from under a pile of white sheets next to tai. He looks over at Tai. 'What else could possibly happen?' Tai wonders silently but his question is soon answered. He looks up at the side of the vehicle above him as large claw marks are cut into the metal. Demiveemon finds Davis laying by the back doors, half covered by shredded sheets, metal and broken bottles.

"Tai, I found Davish!" Demiveemon calls from across the room.

'What is causing this? It can't be human, can it?' he wonders as he keeps looking up at the claw marks. He then gets a cold feeling and he feels sick. Looking in front of him, Tai sees a dark figure that's cloaked. It looks more like a shadow then a real person. The cloak is hooded and the wearer's face can't be seen, just electric blue eyes glowing in the darkness of the hood. Tai gets a wave of nausea and tiredness as the shadow walks forward toward him. The trapped digidestined looks up at the figure and his vision suddenly goes blurry. He gets a bad headache as he feels more sick. Across the room, he can hear Davis scream in pain and he is about to ask what happened but stops as he feels a white-hot pain rip across his forehead. Everything then starts to go black. The last thing he remembers before he blacks out is that the shadow vanishes as suddenly as it appeared and he hears someone calling his name in the distance . . .

Matt has gotten to the hospital with Sora but Izzy, Joe, Cody and Mimi aren't able to go. It has been at least 20 minutes and they are starting to get worried. Sora sleeps across some of the chairs and Yolei is starting to doze off also. Matt looks at his watch. 'Why are they so late?'

Just as he finishes thinking that, the emergency room doors bust open, making Yolei jump. The group of digidestined look at the two people being brought in. Matt gets up to get a better view of what's going on at the emergency door. One of the nurses move, and Matt sees an unconscious teenager with crazy brown hair. Matt steps forward as he keeps looking at the young teenager.

"Tai?" Matt says as he walks toward him. Kari looks at Matt, confused. She then gets up and follows him

"What? What is it?"

Kari looks at Matt as she keeps following him. He doesn't answer. Kari then looks at what Matt is staring at. She stops and she grabs Matt's arm, making him stop. She looks at her brother laying on the bed. His T-shirt is streaked with blood and torn across the middle. A shallow cut is across his neck that slowly oozes blood and he is still unconscious. He is then taken back into the ER. Kari sees Davis being taken back along with Tai. The cut down the right side of his face is worse and she sees blood on the left side of his head, running from his hair from a wound she can't see. His left arm is badly cut and the wound is deep. Its laying in a slightly strange position that makes Kari flinch. The black T-shirt to his soccer uniform is torn and she can see a wound through the tear but can't see it well. The other digidestined walk to Kari and Matt. They are still staring after Tai and Davis. A nurse looks at the group of kids and goes over to them.

"Do you know them?" The nurse asks them. Kari turns to look at her.

"Yeah, we know them. Tai Yagamii is my brother and Davis Motamiya is our friend. What happened?"

"Well, they were in a car crash or at least that what we believe happened. Oh, I almost forgot," the nurse takes demiveemon off the front desk counter. He stays perfectly still and he's holding Davis's goggles tight

"We found it with them. It's a strange looking stuffed animal," she hands Kari the digimon still looking at it strange. Poor demiveemon is covered in shattered glass and he has a blood streak across his cheek. He holds his partners broken goggles tight. Kari holds him as she looks back at the nurse.

"Thank you, will you tell us when you find anything about Davis and Tai?"

The nurse nods and the group of digidestined walk back to their seats and sit back down. They make sure no one is paying attention to them and they all look at demiveemon who is sitting is Kari's lap. He is taking the glass shards off himself but is still holding the shattered goggles tight.

"Demiveemon, what happened?"Matt asks in a quiet voice.

The small digimon looks up at him and they can see tears forming in his normally cheerful eyes.

"It happened so fast. I remember something heavy hitting the side of the vehicle, knocking it onto its side."

Yolei shrugs slightly. "It could have been another car that didn't stop for the ambulance. There's nothing unusual about car crashes."

"Maybe not," Tk says as he gets up. "But I have a feeling that this wasn't a normal crash. I think it was planned."

Matt looks up at his younger brother from his chair.

"What makes you think that? Why would anyone want to purposely crash into another vehicle and who would want to?"

Tk is silent as he thinks but then looks at the others, including demiveemon. "Well we'll just have to ask Tai and Davis when they can answer." He was tempted to say if they survive this but decided to choose his words more carefully. They call their parents after deciding to stay the night at the hospital. Kari tries to calm her parent s down as she talks to them on the phone. Kari then goes back to the others who are making beds on the couches and floor.

"My mom and dad have to work so they can't come till tomorrow. Hey Sora, did you talk to Davis's parents?"

Sora throws a pillow on her temporary bed as she gets up. A blush rises into her cheeks.

"Well, no. not exactly."

"Why not?"

"I called them and only got an answering machine. It said they were gone on a trip to Africa and wont be back in another four weeks."

"4 weeks!" Matt nearly shouts.

People look at Matt as they walk past. Sora nods and Matt lowers his voice.

"Their son is hurt and they are off chasing gazelles in Africa!" He sighs and falls back onto one of the couches. "I guess we're lucky schools out so we can stay with them. Well, lets get some sleep."

The other nod and fall asleep in the hospital waiting room.

While the others are sleeping, Tai and Davis are fighting to survive. They have been there for almost four hours and they were taken into the O.R., right away. The two of them are still being worked on. After several more tiring hours, the two young teens are sent into a recovery room in the intensive care unit.

"_Tai! No!" Kari screams as her brother gets hit by a car. Kari runs to him and gets on her knees. She pulls his limp body into her lap. Tai slowly looks up at Kari as blood runs from the corner of his mouth._

"_Kari, never give up . . . "his eyes slowly close and he breathes for the last time. He then goes still. _Kari gasps and wakes up breathing heavy. She sits up still shaking. She looks around the waiting room. Yolei is still sleeping on one of the couches, snoring slightly. Matt is sitting in a chair across from her and is awake. He looks at her as she wakes up.

"Are you ok?" Matt asks as he studies Kari's face. She is breathing heavy but is starting to calm down she looks at Matt, brushing her hair out of her eyes with her finger.

"Yeah . . . Im ok. What time is it?"

Matt looks at his watch

"Around 9:15 a.m. The others are eating breakfast. I wasn't hungry so I stayed here to wait for you and Yolei to wake up. I'm glad I did, are you going to be ok?"

Kari nods as she looks at the blonde.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Have you guys heard anything yet?"

"No, we decided to wait till everyone was together so we wouldn't have to repeat it to everyone as they woke up."

It was a little after 10 when all of the digidestined were back in the waiting room. Yolei yawns as Sora goes to get the nurse that was talking to them yesterday. She comes back a few minutes later with her. Sora sits back down next to Kari.

"So, how bad is it? How are they?" Kari says in a rather small voice. The nurse looks at them and sighs slightly.

"Well, Tai was pinned under a metal table that fell on him. His ribs were broken and his lungs were badly damaged. Something cut him across his neck. The wound wasn't very deep but still did damage. When he fell, he got a minor concussion. We were able to repair his lungs but weren't able to fix the damage done to his throat. He can't talk but we don't know if its permanent. He hasn't woke up since he got here." She stops and lets her words sink in. Tears run from Kari's eyes and Sora hugs her close, comforting her. Ken looks at the nurse.

"What about Davis?"

"Davis's injures are far worse then Tai's. His left arm was shattered on impact. The cut down the right side of his face was cut open even more. He hit his head on the side of the vehicle when it flipped and got a serious concussion. Something stabbed him in his left side. The wound was deep and did a lot of damage. Heavy damage was done to his back. We repaired the shattered bones in his left arm and put stitches in the cut down his face. But when we were operating on his left side, we found it hard to repair the harm done. Because of the serious concussion, he may have memory lose but we don't know how permanent or how serious it will be." She pauses for a minute and looks at the floor.

"What? What is it?" Ken asks as he leans forward, getting nervous.

"He could be paralyzed from the waist down."

The digidestined fall silent at hearing that. That would mean that he'd never play soccer again or play basketball with Tk again. Demiveemon was listening inside of Kari's backpack along with the other digimon. Gatomon and Wormmon try to comfort the sobbing demiveemon while poromon sleeps. Patamon is still listening intently to the conversation going on the other side of the backpack. After a few minutes of no speaking, Kari breaks the silence.

"Can we go see them?"

The nurse looks at her and their eyes meet.

"Yeah, they are in the same room. I'll take you there if you will follow me."

The group of digidestined get up and Kari grabs her backpack. The nurse then leads them down a corridor. Tk wrinkles his nose at the smell of the hospital. They follow the nurse through a sliding glass door with large letters painted in white on them. The door reads: **Intensive Care Unit **and lists the hours for visiting. She walks to one of the far rooms, the door closed. The names' Davis Motamiya and Tai Yagamii are to the right of the door. The nurse then leaves them and walks to the nurses' station, leaving the digidestined standing in front of the closed door. Kari stares blankly at it, still holding Sora's hand tight. Sora looks at her and smiles gently.

"Are you ready?" She asks Kari quietly.

Kari then nods and the other digidestined opens the door slowly, still holding Kari's hand as she leads her into the room. The room is quite large. To their left on the left side of the room is the sink and bathroom area. The large window is on the far wall and a few couches are sitting in front of the window. To their right is the first bed. More tears run from Kari's eyes as she walks to her brother laying on the first bed. Thick bandages are wrapped around his neck, covering the wound on his neck. He is wearing a short hospital T-shirt that shows his midriff. Heavy bandages are wrapped around his chest and all the way down to his waist. He is wearing baggy pants made of the same material as the shirt. Kari pulls a chair up to the side of the bed and sits down, watching her brother. Sora stands next to her. Tai is wearing an oxygen mask that helps him breathe and is hooked to several other machines.

A curtain is pulled horizontally across half the room, and Davis can't be seen. Ken and Matt walk around to the other side of the curtain. The other digidestined can hear Matt speak through the curtain.

"Whoa . . . "

"Is it really bad Matt?" Sora asks as she looks at the curtain, staying at Kari's side.

"Um, yeah. I'd say so," Matt answers as he pulls the curtain back, letting the others see. Davis is laying on the bed, unconscious like Tai. A heavy bandage is around his forehead and over the place on the left side of his head where Kari saw blood running from his hair yesterday. Another bandage is covering the bad wound down the right side of his face. His left arm is in a blue cast from his shoulder down to his wrist. He is wearing the same type of clothes as Tai. He has a blue cast on his chest down to his waist. Like Tai, he is having help to breathe and hooked to even more machines then Tai, that quietly beep, making the room hum. Yolei walks to one of the couches in front of the window, collapsing onto it. Kari stares at her brother. They all look at the door when it opens. The nurse walks in again.

"Did you hear anything more about what happened?" Tk asks as he looks at her.

"Well, its very odd. They said it wasn't another car that hit them. And they said there were giant claw marks ripped into the side of the ambulance."

Yolei coughs as she nearly chokes on the water she's drinking.

"Claw marks?" Ken asks, his full attention on the nurse now.

"Yeah, claw marks. Both the passenger nurse and the driver were killed but we don't know how. What's even more strange, when we found Tai and Davis, they were ice cold to the touch even though its over 98 degrees outside. That's all I've heard right now but I'll keep you informed. Oh, and a few of you can sleep on the couches in here."

"How long till they wake up?" Kari asks as she looks at her.

"Tai could wake up anytime now but as for Davis, it could be awhile. He's basically in a coma."

A few of the digidestined nod. She looks at Kari.

"Is there anyone you want me to call?"

"My parents are coming sometime this afternoon. They had to work so they couldn't come yesterday," Kari answers.

"Davis's parents are in Africa," Matt says as he glances at Davis's limp form.

"What about June?" Tk asks his older brother from where he sits in the corner of the room.

"She's at college in America. I could call her and tell her what happened but she wouldn't be able to come," Matt says as he gets up. Ken watches Matt leave the room then looks at Davis. The nurse leaves and the digimon crawl out of Kari's backpack. Demiveemon crawls onto Davis's bed and lays at his partners side. Gatomon yawns and climbs into Kari's lap.

"Im so tired," Poromon says in a tired voice as he lays on a chair. Ken looks at him.

"You guys are probably starving. I'll go down to the kitchen and bring back some food," Ken says, getting up and walking to the door.

"I'll go with you," Tk gets up and follows Ken out the door. Kari sighs as she starts to doze off, leaning on Sora's shoulder who is sitting in a chair next to her. Sora lets her mind wander as she stares at Tai. She remembers all the good times they had together. A tear runs down her cheek as she realizes she may never hear Tai's voice again. She snaps back to reality when Tai's eyes slowly start to open. She quickly wipes away the tear. The last thing she needs is for her boyfriend to think she's falling in love with his best friend. She sits up as she looks at Tai, waking Kari up. Kari smiles at him. Tai slowly looks at the two girls at his side. A tired look is in his eyes. Sora smiles too as she looks down at him.

"Hey, welcome back," Sora says as she tries to hold back tears. Tai looks at her and opens his mouth to talk.

"Tai, you can't talk. Your neck was cut but we don't know how long you wont be able to talk. I'm sorry," Sora says quickly. She can see him wince in pain and her smile fades.

"Are you ok?"

Tai slowly nods. Sora hand him a dry erase board and a marker. Tai writes something and then turns the board around so they can read it. It says:

what happened to Davis?

"He wasn't so lucky. He was badly hurt," Sora answers but quickly adds, "he's doing ok right now" when she sees the look on his face. She points to the bed to Tais right.

"He's over there."

Tai looks over at the younger boy then writes:

how long have I been out?

"About a day."

"Mom and dad are coming in a few hours."

Tai nods slowly but then he suddenly blacks out, closing his eyes.

"Tai? Tai? Kari stay here. Im going to go get the nurse."

Sora leaves the room and comes back a minute later with the nurse. Kari notices the nurses name tag for the first time. The name on it is Karen. Karen checks the machines.

"He passed out, he could have gotten a blood clot in his lung. We need to get him to the O.R. now," Karen says as she pulls up the side railings on Tai's bed. She pulls Tai's bed out of the room and Sora looks at Kari. The younger girl collapses into Sora's arms as Matt, Ken and Tk come back into the room confused. Ken walks to one of the chairs and dumps some snack food from a vending machine into the chair, ignoring Yolei who is still sleeping on the couch. Matt and Tk walk to Sora who is trying to support Kari.

"What happened?" Matt asks Sora.

Tk starts the ask Kari if she's ok but Sora shakes her head, making him stop.

"Im going to take Kari back to her apartment and stay with her there. Call me if you hear anything about either of them," is all Sora says as she walks to the door with Kari leaning heavily on her. Matt nods. Kari's face has gone really pale and Sora starts to get concerned as she leads the younger girl into the elevator. The elevator button dings when Sora presses the ground level and she lets her mind wander as the elevator jerks to life and starts to drop. All of a sudden the elevator stops half way down with a violent shake. Kari grabs for the side bar on the wall of the elevator as she starts to fall forward. Sora gasps as she sees her breath rise in a cloud of mist in front of her. The light in the elevator flickers, casting a neon green light over everything and she sees ice starting to coat the control panel of the elevator. It slowly starts to spread across the walls and ceiling. Sora can feel Kari shiver as the temperature falls to a chilling 40°.

"What's going on?" Kari asks as she backs away from the ice coated walls so she is in the center of the elevator. Sora stays at her side, wondering the exact same thing.


	2. Chapter 2 Haunting Ice

Hi, I would just like to say that i do NOT own digimon and if I did i wouldnt be writing fanfiction. Anyways, this is the second chapter! yay! Personally, I think this is better then the last one but whatever, onward!

Chapter 2

Haunting Ice

Kari holds her head in pain, falling to her knees as she screams.

"Kari!" Sora yells as she drops onto her knees next to the brunette girl. "What is it? What's wrong?" Kari's eyes are closed and her face is turned toward the floor. She doesn't look up at Sora.

"Come on Kari, tell me what's wrong so maybe I can help."

"The darkness. I can feel it coming."

Sora is speechless, not knowing what to say. She looks around at the frozen elevator. Both girls jump when the thick ice covering the inside of the elevator shatters suddenly with a deafening smash. Sora puts her right arm in front of her face, trying to shield it as she turns her head the other way while her other arm is around Kari. The shards of broken ice fly from the walls. Kari instinctively covers her face with her hands. Kari screams as the elevator drops again and hits the bottom floor with such a force the two girls almost fall over. The door then opens with a loud crunch, dislodging more ice but the ice vanishes as though it never existed. Kari and Sora stay on their knees in shock, not knowing what to say. Their breathing is heavy. The elevator doors stay open, patiently waiting for the teenagers to get off. Sora slowly gets up and helps Kari to her feet. They leave the elevator, the doors closing rather quickly behind them, Kari looks at the older girl shakily, her breathing heavy.

"I never want to do that again," Kari says, her voice shaking. Sora nods quickly in response.

"Lets get out of here before something like that happens again," the red head says grabbing Kari's hand tight, pulling her toward the entrance door of the hospital. They leave without another word, not looking back once.

Matt sits up in his chair back in Davis and Tais room, getting a strange feeling. Tai hasn't been brought back yet and Davis is still out cold. Ken notices Matt sit up and looks at him. The digimon have already devoured the vending machine snacks. Tk and Yolei are talking quietly. Gatomon decided to stay with demiveemon instead of going back with Kari and Sora. The two digimon are curled up together on Davis's bed at the boy's side, asleep. The other digimon are also asleep on one of the couches.

"What's wrong?" Ken whispers quietly so only Matt can her him because he doesn't want the others to worry.

"I thought I felt something," Matt replies in the same quiet voice. "June said she'd try and call her mom and dad about Davis when she gets around to it."

"How supportive. 'when she gets around to it'. Talk about sisterly love," Ken sighs as he shakes his head, being sarcastic. Matt nods as he looks at Davis.

"What if he never gets better Matt? What if he is paralyzed permanently after this or what if he..." Ken cant seem to finish as he looks down at the floor. He gulps then finishes his sentence, "Dies."

Ken looks up but quietly closes his eyes as a sharp pain rips across his left cheek. His head snaps to the side by the force. He had been slapped.

Tk and Yolei look over at the two of them as they hear the loud slap. Ken puts his hand over the burning red mark on his cheek as he looks at Matt, stunned.

"Whatya do that for?" Tk asks his older brother.

"Ouch, that sounded painful," Yolei adds as she looks at Ken.

"You cant think like that. You're Davis's best friend. If you don't think he will survive then he wont stand a chance. He needs all of our support," Matt growls in a low voice to Ken. Ken slowly takes his hand away from his cheek and silently nods.

"You're right. Thanks Matt, I needed that," Ken smiles at the blonde.

"Anytime. If you were Tai I would have punched you. Hard."

"Man, you have one heck of an arm," Ken says, rubbing his still very red cheek. Yolei tries to cover a giggle.

Kari fumbles with her apartment key as she turns it in the lock. The two girls walk into the empty apartment. Kari collapses onto the couch as Sora walks into the kitchen. She notices that there are two mew messages.

"Hey Kari, there's two new messages on the answering machine. Do you want me to answer them?" Sora calls from the kitchen.

"Sure! I don't want to move!" Kari yells back, laying face first on the couch. She can hear the answering machine slightly from where she is. The answering machine clicks on when Sora hits the red message button.

Answering machine: you have two new messages. BEEP: **Kari, I don't know when you'll get home and get this. This's mom, I'm sorry honey but your dad and I cant get to the hospital. We have been sent to England on a case. Take care of your brother until we get back. I don't know if we can call you again. **BEEP. **End of message**. Kari doesn't listen to the other message but instead falls asleep. Sora returns to the living room, a soda in her hand. She smiles at the sleeping brunette and sits down in a large armchair. She takes a drink from the can of soda she holds as she goes into deep thought. 'Why did Kari's mom sound like she didn't care at all what happened to Tai? If I was her, I'd be freaking out. Maybe I'm just paranoid or over protective of him. But still...she was panicking yesterday. Why not today?' A tear slides down Sora cheek but hastily brushes it away when she looks at the younger girl sleeping on the couch. She picks up a book off the coffee table as she opens it and starts to read.

Matt shivers as he gets the weird feeling, but he ignores it as he looks down at his watch. It's late evening now. Tai was brought back two hours ago. He had a blood clot in his lungs and was being suffocated. His blood was thinned and it got rid of the clot. They are keeping him unconscious. Matt looks over at Tai and gets the cold feeling again. 'What if Ken's right? What if they do die?' Matt thinks to himself but his attention is then drawn to the shadows underneath Tai's bed. He sees a pair of electric blue eyes glowing in the dark shadows. Inch thick ice starts to cover the metal bed frame. Matt gasps as the cold eyes look at him and hold his gaze.

"Hey Matt, what are you lookin at?" Yolei asks as she notices that he's staring underneath Tai's bed. Matt doesn't answer but instead watches as the ice and the eyes vanish without a trace. He keeps staring at the place where the eyes used to be and he doesn't notice that he has stood up. Tk walks to him looking concerned. Yolei stays where she is, watching the two teenagers.

"Matt?" Tk puts his hand on his shoulder but quickly pulls it away as though he got scorched. Matt doesn't look at him but still keeps staring forward.

"Really hot?"

"No, more like really cold. His skin feels like ice," Tk says surprised. "Matt?" He waves his hand in front of his brother's eyes but they don't even blink. "Yolei-" Tk starts to speak but stops instantly when Matt collapses onto the floor, his eyes slowly closing.

"Matt!"

Kari gasps as she wakes up with a jolt. Sora looks over at her, putting the book she was reading down.

"You ok? You look like you've just saw a ghost. What's wrong?"

Kari tries to calm down.

"Bad dream?"

"No, more like a bad feeling. Sora, something's wrong. Something happened to Matt, I can feel it," Kari answering, looking at the older girl.

"What?" Sora gasps, horrified. But then the phone rings and she gets up, walking into the kitchen. Kari can only hear Sora's end of the conversation but she can tell something's wrong. She hears: "What! Is he alright? Of course, we'll be there in 10 minutes."

Sora then comes back and her face is pale and worried.

"You were right. Matt passed out after acting strange. I told them we'd be the in 10 minutes. They also have news about Tai." Kari nods and gets up, following Sora out the door.

Tk lays across a large arm chair at the side of Matt's bed. Matt's clothes are soaking wet with freezing cold water and his skin is like ice. His skin is as pale as snow and is coated with frost slightly. Water runs from his frozen blonde hair. Tk looks at the doorway when Sora walks in the room. She walks to Matt and touches his soaked black t-shirt, then looks at TK.

"What happened?" she asks as a single tear runs down her cheek. Tk sighs, sitting up and rubbing his eyes looking tired. He tells her how Matt felt ice cold and collapsed onto the floor. Sora again touches Matt's cold black t-shirt, heavy because of being drenched.

"But he's soaked with water and there's ice in his hair. He's nearly frozen, how could this happen?" Sora asks absently as she looks down at the unconscious teenager. Tk shrugs. Just then Karen comes in carrying a large pile of big blankets. She dumps the blankets onto the bed and looks at Sora as she starts to cover Matt with the blankets.

"It's strange, this is almost exactly how Davis and Tai were found. They were really pale and their skin was cold but not as severe as this," she says as she puts the last blanket on Matt. She then takes his temperature and Tk looks up when she curses rather loud.

"What?" Tk asks, trying to cover a yawn but fails.

"His temp is dropping still. It's 90° and falling. He is quickly getting hypothermia." Karen says, looking at Sora.

"How much lower can it go?"

"Once he reaches 82° he'll die. But I don't just don't understand. Oh, if one of you can bring him some dry clothes, I'm sure that would help keep him warmer," Karen answers, gently pulling ice from Matts dripping hair. "Well, I have to go check on Tai and Davis. Keep him warm and try to get him to wake up."

Sora nods as Karen walks from the room. She sits on the side of the bed, next to Matt. Tk yawns again, leaning back in the large armchair.

"He's soaking wet. It hasn't rained for days and he's been inside since the other two were in brought in. He's frozen when it's 98° outside. Tk, it doesn't make sense."

"I know, he was acting strange. He looked like he was staring at something underneath Tai's bed." Tk then looks at her when she sits up and gasps, "What? What is it?"

"When me and Kari were in the elevator, leaving the hospital, something odd happened. Thick ice covered the inside of the elevator but then it shattered and vanished as though it was never there. It was so cold, it felt like the ice was coating my bones."

Tk is silent as he listens.

"When Matt had been taken from the room, I heard a dripping noise. It was cold water running off the metal frame of Tai's bed. What if he really saw something but where did all the cold water come from? This is getting stranger by the minute. I'm beginning to think someone's purposely going after the 3 of them, but who or what would do it?" Tk looks at Sora as he finishes. Sora is gently removing ice off Matt's neck and his bright blonde hair. His lips have began to turn bright blue, making his extremely pale skin to look even more frosted and it gleams in the light.

"Well, I'll go get Matt some dry clothes. Be back later," Tk says as he gets up and walks out the door, covering a yawn. Sora leans forward, laying her head on Matt's chest as she sighs and closes her eyes. She slowly drifts off to sleep.

"Those brats may still live!" yells a shadowed figure in the dark corner of a dark castle. "The two holding the crest of courage are badly hurt and if they die, I will finally be rid of the digidestined forever! But the two of them may still live because of friendship!"

"But master, the wolf child was frozen when he just looked into your eyes! They are no match for you!" a small bat like creature says as he bows down in front of the shadowed figure. The dark shadow laughs as it looks at the small creature in front of him with his glowing electric blue eyes.

"Flattery will get you everywhere," the shadow laughs evilly, the laughing echoes off the walls and intensifying. The small creature just looks up and grins.

" I am at your service master."

"I have a job for you, get rid of the digidestined's digimon!"

"Yes master," the bat type creature says as he flies out of the castle, toward the unexpecting digidestined.

"Tai, try not to move," Kari says as Tai tries to sit up after he just woke up. He winces and falls back as he holds his badly damaged ribs. He grabs the marker board and marker, writing something down. After a minute, he turns it around so Kari can see what it says:

Kari, will you do me a favor? Can you find Agumon for me?

I want to see him again. What happened to Matt?

"Yeah, I'll find him. Matts in a different room," Kari answers as she looks at the floor. She then tells him what the others said had happened. Tai writes something back and shows her:

Is he ok?

"I don't know but I'll go check," she gets up and walks from the room. Tai watches her leave and he wishes he could comfort her like he always has in the past. He remembers when they were younger and he was teaching her how to roller blade

Flashback

"Tai! It hurts!" a six year old Kari cries as she hugs her bleeding knees to her chest with her scratched arms. Tai kneels next to her and he gently wipes the blood away with a Kleenex. Kari winces as the wounds get touched. Tai smiles slightly as he looks down at her.

"Sorry, is that better?" he asks as he finishes wiping away the blood. Kari nods slowly as she brushes away the tears in her eyes and looks up at Tai.

"Tai, will I ever be able to rollarblade?" she sobs, looking into his caring eyes. He smiles as he helps her up.

"Of course. Just not today. Lets go home and fix up your knees, ok?"

"K!" Kari smiles but gets unbalanced and starts to fall. Tai grabs her arm firmly but gently, keeping her in a standing position. He then rollarblades home, helping Kari along side him.

End flashback

A tear slowly runs from his eye at remembering that. 'Why cant I comfort her now? she needs me more then ever and I cant sit up!' he thinks angrily to himself.

'Because she no longer needs you! You were only fooling yourself, she never needed nor wanted your help. It's all your fault you know, Davis never would have gotten hurt so bad if you hadn't been there,' a cold voice says in the teenagers mind. Tai gasps as the words echo through his mind, leaving a cold numb feeling behind. Tai shakes his head, trying to get rid of th creepy feeling.

'No, that's not true! It cant be! Can it? Is it really my fault Davis almost got killed?' Tai wonders. He then slowly closes his eyes as he feels exhausted. Darkness consumes him almost instantly as he falls unconscious.

Matt slowly opens his eyes and he sees a blurred figure standing in front of him that is cloaked and looks like nothing more then a shadow. The teen blinks several times, trying to clear his vision. He tries to lift up his arms but finds them to heavy to lift, almost like they were made of iron. His vision slowly clears and he looks down at his legs. Two inch thick ice is covering his legs up to his waist keeping him standing and in one place. Matt looks at the cloaked figure's glowing electric blue eyes and gasps, knowing instantly.

"You!" Matt tries to scream but his words come out as a hoarse whisper. Her coughs, surprised at the way his own voice sounds but he looks back at the cloaked figure. "It was you, you were under Tai's bed," Matt coughs, his throat really sore for some reason.

"Yes, your fragile human body couldn't handle it when I just looked at you."

"What did you do to me..." Matt asks as he winces.

"See for yourself."

A small tv screen appears in front of Matt. The digidestined looks at it closely, trying to see its image better because he still cant move. He gasps but because of his sore throat, its more of a groan. It was him! He was in a hospital bed and he was soaked with ice water, blankets piled on top of him. There is someone else there and he looks harder at the screen as a tear runs from his eye. It was Sora. She is sitting at his side, her head laying on his chest and is asleep. His skin is whiter the snow and his lips are bright blue. His eyes are closed because he is unconscious and his breathing is shallow. The screen slowly melts away and Matt looks back at the cloaked figure.

"What happened to me?" Matt asks quietly as he starts to feel tired.

"You were frozen the instant you looked into my eyes. I couldn't have you warning the digidestined of my presence."

"I'm going to tell them anyways when I wake up. I guess your plan failed," Matt snaps back angrily. He hears a deep laugh come from inside the hood.

"What's so funny!" Matt tries to yell, getting angry because he's not getting any answers. The laughter slowly dies.

"Because young Matt, holder of the crest of friendship. You will never again see the light of day."

"No! You cant do that!"

"Cant I? I was the one who attacked Davis and Tai! You unexpectedly got in the way so I had to stop you, but it is working out better then I thought."

Matt glares at the shadowed figure.

"Then show yourself you coward, instead of hiding in the shadows! Are you afraid to show yourself to a dying teenager!" Matt yells, letting his anger go. He shivers when a low growl comes from the hood. The cloak drops to the floor but Matt cant see who it is because he is still in the shadows. He looks harder as his vision starts to get blurry again.

"Come into the light..."

The creature slowly steps into the light and Matt suddenly realizes how big he is. A shiver runs down his back as he looks up at him.

"I am Icedevimon. I am the last being you will ever talk to Matt Ishida," Icedevimon says, smiling. Matt tries to answer but he suddenly feels exhausted.

"Enjoy your last few minutes of life Matt because they are almost over," Icedevimon says smiling. Matt looks at him, finding its getting hard for him to keep his eyes open as he tries to fight a new wave of sickness. Icedevimon spreads his wings.

"Frozen claw!" Icedevimon's voice echos off the ice coated walls. Matt looks at the fallen angel digimon but instantly closes his eyes again as intense pain rips through him. He screams in pain as the attack hits him. It feels like his whole body is getting cut by a knife and the cold goes down to his very bones, freezing them. He screams again in pain.

"Gabumon!" Matt yells as he falls to the floor, the ice on his legs shattering with a sickening smash. He hears Icedevimon laugh as he slowly blacks out.

Sora wakes up instantly as she feels Matt suddenly tense up and become rigid. She looks at him and his breathing gets really shallow.

"Karen!"

Karen comes in quickly

"What happened?" Karen asks walking to Matt, looking at the heart monitor. The line is jumping up and down out of pattern.

"I don't know, I felt him get tense and his breathing got shallow."

"He's freezing again!" she flings back the blankets covering the teen's chest. Sora holds Matts cold limp hand tightly as she look at him, horrified. Dark blood slowly runs from Matt's mouth, that looks black because of his white skin. Karen glances at the blood and tilts him on his side, his hand falling from Sora's grasp. Sora backs up to let Karen through.

"Come on Matt, wake up." Karen says as she grabs Matts arm and injects a clear liquid into his left arm. She then rubs the place where she injected the liquid, trying to get it to spread quicker. A minute or two passes silently except for the beeping of the machines in the room. Sora jumps when Matt suddenly gasps and jolts awake. He coughs as though trying to breathe in very thin air and blood splatters the white bed sheets. Karen smiles, obviously relieved that he was at least awake. Matt gasps again as he holds his left side tightly and winces.

"Matt, are you ok?" Sora asks as she steps forward. Matt doesn't answer as he closes his eyes in pain and holds his side tighter. His clothes are still drenched and are heavy. He is now shaking and shivering uncontrollably, making the bed shake slightly. Karen pulls the blankets back up onto him.

"Your brother's bringing you dry clothes. Hang in there Matt," Karen says as she leaves the room. Sora sits back down on the edge of Matt's bed and looks down at him. She could feel the bed move because he was shaking so badly.

"Matt..." Matt looks up at her, as she brushes his wet hair out of his face with her finger. "Are you ok? What happened?"

"Im so cold..." Matt whispers in a slightly tired voice as he keeps shivering, the dark blood running from his mouth slightly.

"Tk's bringing you dry clothes, I'm sure he's coming back right now. Just hang on" Sora says as she wipes the blood off Matt's face. Sora looks up when Kari walks in. She gets up and walks to her at the door. "Hi Kari."

"Hi. What happened..."

Sora turns and looks at Matt and shrugs slightly. "I don't know but I don't want to ask him right now." She turns back to Kari and the younger girl sees tears running down her cheeks. "He almost died Kari..."

"Oh Sora..." Kari says, not knowing what to say. She definitely knows how Sora feels because the same thing is basically happening to Tai. Though she didn't expect the older girl to pull her into a tight hug. She winces slightly but then slowly hugs her back. Sora releases her a minute later, tears still leaking from her eyes.

"Oh, by the way. Have you heard anything else from your parents yet?"

"No, I haven't. I guess they will call when they get the chance. Where did the message on the answering machine say they were going?" Kari asks.

"Um, England I think."

Kari nods absently and was going to tell Sora that she just realized it was strange for her parents to be in England right now but Tk suddenly came in. She didn't want Tk to know she was worried about her parents also, he had enough on his mind. He's holding a large bag that appears to be filled with clothes and he's out of breath like he was running. But the things the two girls noticed first was the large dark purple bruise covering his left cheek and a nasty looking cut under his left eye at the edge of the bruise. The cut oozes dark blood slowly, streaking his face with blood. His pants are torn in the knees and across his shin. Kari stares at Tk, in disbelieved. It looked like he was in a fight.

"Tk...what happened? Are you alright?"


End file.
